Title 49—Transportation--Volume 1
PART 1250—RAILROAD PERFORMANCE DATA REPORTING
§ 1250.1   General.
(a) The reporting period covers:
(1) For § 1250.2(a)(1)-(9), 12:01 a.m. Saturday-11:59 p.m. Friday;
(2) For § 1250.2(a)(10), the previous calendar month;
(3) For § 1250.2(a)(11), 12:01 a.m. Sunday-11:59 p.m. Saturday;
(4) For § 1250.3(a)(1)-(2), 12:01 a.m. Saturday-11:59 p.m. Friday.
(b) The data required under § 1250.2 and § 1250.3(a) must be reported to the Board via the method and in the form prescribed by the Board's Office of Public Assistance, Governmental Affairs, and Compliance (OPAGAC) by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday of each week. In the event that a particular Wednesday is a Federal holiday or falls on a day when STB offices are closed for any other reason, then the data should be reported on the next business day when the offices are open.
(c) Each reporting railroad shall provide an explanation of its methodology for deriving the data with its initial filing and an update if and when that methodology changes. This explanation should include the unit train definition that the railroad will use in its data reporting, which shall reflect its assignment of train codes in accordance with its normal business practices. If and when a railroad changes its definition of unit train it shall notify the Board of the change at the time it goes into effect in the form prescribed by OPAGAC.
(d) Unless otherwise provided, the performance data, Chicago data and alert levels, narrative infrastructure reporting, and any methodologies or explanations of data collection reported to the Board under this part will be publicly available and posted on the Board's Web site.
§ 1250.2   Railroad performance data elements.
(a) Each Class I railroad must report the performance data elements in paragraphs (a)(1)-(9) and (11) of this section on a weekly basis, and the data elements in paragraph (a)(10) on a monthly basis, for the reporting period, as defined in § 1250.1(a). However, with regard to data elements in paragraph (a)(7) and (8), Kansas City Southern Railway Company is not required to report information by state, but instead shall report system-wide data.
(1) System-average train speed for the overall system and for the following train types for the reporting week. (Train speed should be measured for line-haul movements between terminals. The average speed for each train type should be calculated by dividing total train-miles by total hours operated.)
(i) Intermodal.
(ii) Grain unit.
(iii) Coal unit.
(iv) Automotive unit.
(v) Crude oil unit.
(vi) Ethanol unit.
(vii) Manifest.
(viii) System.
(2) Weekly average terminal dwell time, measured in hours, excluding cars on run-through trains ( i.e., cars that arrive at, and depart from, a terminal on the same through train), for the carrier's system and its 10 largest terminals in terms of railcars processed. (Terminal dwell is the average time a car resides at a specified terminal location expressed in hours.)
(3) Weekly average cars on line by the following car types for the reporting week. (Each railroad shall average its daily on-line inventory of freight cars. Articulated cars should be counted as a single unit. Cars on private tracks ( e.g., at a customer's facility) should be counted on the last railroad on which they were located. Maintenance-of-way cars and other cars in railroad service are to be excluded.)
(i) Box.
(ii) Covered hopper.
(iii) Gondola.
(iv) Intermodal.
(v) Multilevel (Automotive).
(vi) Open hopper.
(vii) Tank.
(viii) Other.
(ix) Total.
(4) Weekly average dwell time at origin for the following train types: Grain unit, coal unit, automotive unit, crude oil unit, ethanol unit, and all other unit trains. (For the purposes of this data element, dwell time refers to the time period from release of a unit train at origin until actual movement by the receiving carrier.)
(5) The weekly average number of trains holding per day sorted by train type (intermodal, grain unit, coal unit, automotive unit, crude oil unit, ethanol unit, other unit, and manifest) and by cause (crew, locomotive power, or other). (Railroads are instructed to run a same-time snapshot of trains holding each day, and then to calculate the average for the reporting period.)
(6) The weekly average of loaded and empty cars, operating in normal movement and billed to an origin or destination, which have not moved in 48 hours or more, sorted by service type (intermodal, grain, coal, crude oil, automotive, ethanol, fertilizer (the following Standard Transportation Commodity Codes (STCCs): 2812534, 2818142, 2818146, 2818170, 2818426, 2819173, 2819454, 2819815, 2871235, 2871236, 2871238, 2871244, 2871313, 2871315, and 2871451), chemicals or allied products (all STCC 28 not otherwise reported under ethanol or fertilizer), and all other).

In order to derive the averages for the reporting period, carriers should run a same-time snapshot each day of the reporting period, capturing cars that have not moved in 48 hours or more. The number of cars captured on the daily snapshot for each category should be added, and then divided by the number of days in the reporting period. In deriving this data, carriers should include cars in normal service anywhere on their system, but should not include cars placed at a customer facility; in constructive placement; placed for interchange to another carrier; in bad order status; in storage; or operating in railroad service ( e.g., ballast).
(7) The weekly total number of grain cars loaded and billed, reported by state, aggregated for the following STCCs: 01131 (barley), 01132 (corn), 01133 (oats), 01135 (rye), 01136 (sorghum grains), 01137 (wheat), 01139 (grain, not elsewhere classified), 01144 (soybeans), 01341 (beans, dry), 01342 (peas, dry), and 01343 (cowpeas, lentils, or lupines). “Total grain cars loaded and billed” includes cars in shuttle service; dedicated train service; reservation, lottery, open and other ordering systems; and private cars. Additionally, separately report the total cars loaded and billed in shuttle service (or dedicated train service), if any, versus total cars loaded and billed in all other ordering systems, including private cars.
(8) For the aggregated STCCs listed in § 1250.2(a)(7), for railroad-owned or leased cars that will move in manifest service, each railroad shall report by state the following:
(i) Running total of orders placed;
(ii) The running total of orders filled;
(iii) For orders which have not been filled, the number of orders that are 1-10 days past due and 11+ days past due, as measured from when the car was due for placement under the railroad's governing tariff.
(9) Weekly average coal unit train loadings or carloadings versus planned loadings for the reporting week by coal production region. Railroads have the option to report unit train loadings or carloadings, but should be consistent week over week.
(10) For Class I carriers operating a grain shuttle program, the average grain shuttle turns per month, for the total system and by region, versus planned turns per month, for the total system and by region. This data shall be included in the first weekly report of each month, covering the previous calendar month.
(11) Weekly carloads originated and carloads received in interchange by 23 commodity categories, separated into two subgroups:
(i) Twenty-two historical commodity categories.
(A) Chemicals.
(B) Coal.
(C) Coke.
(D) Crushed Stone, Sand and Gravel.
(E) Farm Products except Grain.
(F) Food and Kindred Products.
(G) Grain Mill Products.
(H) Grain.
(I) Iron and Steel Scrap.
(J) Lumber and Wood Products.
(K) Metallic Ores.
(L) Metals.
(M) Motor Vehicles and Equipment.
(N) Non Metallic Minerals.
(O) Petroleum Products.
(P) Primary Forest Products.
(Q) Pulp, Paper and Allied Products.
(R) Stone, Clay and Glass Products.
(S) Waste and Scrap Materials.
(T) All Other.
(U) Containers.
(V) Trailers.
(ii) Fertilizer commodity category.
(A) Fertilizer (for STCCs defined in paragraph (a)(6) of this section).
(B) [Reserved]
(b) [Reserved]
§ 1250.3   Chicago terminal reporting.
(a) Each Class I railroad operating at the Chicago gateway must jointly report the following performance data on a weekly basis for the reporting period, as defined in § 1250.1(a). The reports required under this section may be submitted by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
(1) Average daily car volume in the following Chicago area yards: Barr, Bensenville, Blue Island, Calumet, Cicero, Clearing, Corwith, Gibson, Kirk, Markham, and Proviso for the reporting week; and
(2) Average daily number of trains held for delivery to Chicago sorted by receiving carrier for the reporting week. The average daily number should be derived by taking a same time snapshot each day of the reporting week, capturing the trains held for each railroad at that time, and then adding those snapshots together and dividing by the days in the reporting week.
(i) For purposes of this request, “held for delivery” refers to a train staged by the delivering railroad short of its scheduled arrival at the Chicago gateway at the request of the receiving railroad, and that has missed its scheduled window for arrival.
(ii) If Chicago terminal yards not identified in § 1250.2(b)(1) are included in the Chicago Transportation Coordination Office's (CTCO) assessment of the fluidity of the gateway for purposes of implementing service contingency measures, then the data requested in § 1250.2(b)(1) shall also be reported for those yards.
(b) The Class I railroad members of the CTCO (or one Class I railroad member of the CTCO designated to file on behalf of all Class I railroad members, or AAR) must:
(1) File a written notice with the Board when the CTCO changes its operating Alert Level status, within one business day of that change in status.
(2) If the CTCO revises its protocol of service contingency measures, file with the Board a detailed explanation of the new protocol, including both triggers and countermeasures, within seven days of its adoption.
(c) Reports under paragraph (b) of this section shall be reported to the Director of the Office of Public Assistance, Governmental Affairs and Compliance (OPAGAC) via the method and in the form prescribed by OPAGAC.
§ 1250.4   Rail infrastructure projects reporting.
(a) Class I railroads shall submit annually a narrative report of significant rail infrastructure projects that will be commenced during the current calendar year, and a six-month update on those projects. The reports should briefly describe each project, its purpose, location (state/counties), and projected date of completion.
(b) A “significant rail infrastructure project” is defined as a project with anticipated expenditures of $75 million or more over the life of the project.
(c) The narrative report should be submitted no later than March 1 of each calendar year and the update no later than September 1 of each calendar year via email to the Board's Office of Public Assistance, Governmental Affairs and Compliance (OPAGAC) via the method and in the form prescribed by OPAGAC. In the event that March 1 or September 1 is a Federal holiday, weekend, or falls on a day when STB offices are closed for any other reason, then the data should be reported on the next business day when the offices are open.